I love productive Saturdays. Of course, it helps me stay focused when it’s cloudy and rainy outside.
While Dave raked leaves, I painted a few extras sets of checkers for some new checkerboard sets in my shop. I sold a few sets last year during the holiday season, so I wanted to restock for my upcoming craft show and the gift-giving season.
I like to mix up the king side with crown stamps for some sets and leaf stamps for other sets, which go along with my Patchwork Trails brand.
Then I was feeling motivated to make a batch of pumpkin cookies, the melt-in-your-mouth kind!
EDIT: here is the recipe for the pumpkin cookies, if you’re interested:
1 cup butter, softened
1 cup granulated sugar
1/2 can pumpkin
1 egg
2 cups flour
1 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
Vanilla baking chips (as many as you want)
Milk chocolate baking chips (I used minis)
1 container cream cheese frosting
1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Grease baking sheets.
2. Beat butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add pumpkin and eggs; beat until smooth.
3. Add flour, pumpkin pie spice, baking powder and baking soda. Beat until well blended.
4. Stir in baking chips.
5. Drop rounded spoonfuls onto greased cookie sheet 2 inches apart.
6. Bake for 12-16 minutes. Cool for one minute on cookie sheet, then remove to cooling racks.
7. Spread frosting on warm cookies.
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To keep all that domestic momentum going, we enjoyed chicken pot pie for dinner.
We started with a recipe from the Midwest Living magazine, December issue, which called for puff pastry sheets on the top but we also added a layer of pie crust to the bottom. It was divine!
EDIT: here’s the Pot Pie recipe, if you’re interested:
1 egg
1 tablespoon water
3 cups cooked, diced chicken or turkey
3 cups frozen mixed vegetables
2 tablespoons butter
1/2 cup flour
2 cups chicken broth
1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper
2 tablespoons herbs (parsley, thyme and/or oregano)
1/2 package of Pepperidge Farm Puff Pastry Sheet (1 sheet), thawed
1 pie crust
1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.
2. Whisk egg and water in small bowl.
3. Heat butter in saucepan over medium heat. Add flour and broth, stirring until mixture thickens. Add chicken and vegetables. Pour into pie crust.
4. Unfold pastry sheet and place over filling. Press pastry to rim to seal. Brush pastry with egg mixture and sprinkle with herbs.
5. Bake for 25 minutes or until pastry is golden brown.
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I’m off to my sewing room now to play. Hope you had a productive day too!
Terri's Notebook 
Love your checker sets – the stamped images are fantastic – especially love the leaf. Your pie looks delicious, especially on top of the heather Bailey mat.
How exciting! You’re getting ready for Christmas sales!! I hope I have some. We’ll see how it goes…
My Saturday was only productive in the sense that I got out of the house and went to that killer antique store! So much fun!
Tomorrow may be a little more productive. We’ll see.
Your cookies and chicken pot pie look delish!!
LOVE cozy, crafty weekends!
Is it possible to drool loudly?!! CAN YOU HERE ME KNOW? I’m spending all of rainy tomorrow baking and cassarole-making so I can live on leftovers during the busy week. My favorite kind of Sunday!
Perfect Saturday! Fall brings around that crafty feeling-the cooler weather I suppose! I got nothing done today (as I had to work) but it’s nice to see someone made a dent in their to do list!
PS-my husband lives for pumpkin type food…he’s drooling.
Chicken pot pie looks so yummy:) I may have to make some real soon.
Right – I’m on my way over – save me one of those pumpkin muffins – I am positively drooling here!! Any chance of posting the recipe :0))
Pie looks wonderful too and great doing with the checker board pieces – productive Saturdays are great x
Thanks so much, Shell! I edited my post to include the recipes for the pumpkin cookies and the pot pie. Hope you get to try them!
My stomach’s growling…can you hear it?
Your checkerboard sets are so unique! Love them!
Productivity here was listening to Nebraska beat OSU! Yep, that’s about it:)
YUM. I think it’s lunchtime!!!
I love your checker sets, they look really fun to make. Hope you’re having a good weekend. 🙂
Oh for goodness sake, Terri! I’ve been craving homemade chicken pot pie for weeks 🙂 thanks for taunting me! Love your checkers, very creative!
That was a perfect dinner for a wonderfull fall day. It was not cold here barely cool but a little windy and rain off and on. Everything looks so good. Maybe I should cook today!!! I thought your checker board sets last year were really cute. They remind me of the ones our kids had years ago from cracker barrel. But yours are so much more lively. Theirs were just big floor ones I think in red and green. Its been a few years.
Everything looks fabulous! Especially the pumpkin cookies! I wish I had motivation like that. I really love the chess set, what a great idea.
Terri – you ALWAYS seem to be so productive! And I am going to have to try that chicken pot pie recipe the next time my son comes home from college. He loves chick. pot pie!. It looks very good — especially on that pretty Pop Garden mat!
joan
Love your checker board sets, such a great idea! Those pumpkin cookies and the pot pie look so yummy. I haven’t had Chicken pot pie in years, I can’t wait to make it. Thanks for sharing the recipe. I just made pumpkin cookies today and ate way too many.
Dearest swee terri, your checker board sets looks awesome and they do make such wonderful gifts!! Oh my and the pumpkin cookies look so yummueee! Thanks soo much for sharing the cecipe! Have a lovely merry happy week sweet friend and love to yoU!
yum! i think i just gained a few pounds by reading the recipes. 🙂
all your checkers (lined up ever so neatly) are cute! i love the stamped back idea, too. you do it all, don’t you???
oh my gosh, I adore the checkers!
And stamps are becoming my new obsession. Love it!